Terminator Character

The default terminator symbol for the Firebird database is the
semicolon (;). Statements will only be executed if they end with a
semicolon. However, you may use isql to change
the symbol to any printable character from the first 127 characters of the
ASCII subset, by using the SET TERM command.

Note

The default terminator maybe changed in all instances except in
the case of procedure language statements or PSQL.
PSQL does not accept any terminator other than a semicolon.

To change the terminator character to a tilda (~) enter the
following code:

SQL> SET TERM ~;

You must terminate this command with the current terminator of
course! Changing the terminator is useful if you wish to type in a PSQL
function as the following example shows. Because PSQL will
only accept the semicolon as a terminator, then
isql needs to know which semicolon is being
used for the PSQL code and which is being used to terminate the SQL
commands being entered.

You can see that withing the code for the procedure itself, the
terminator is the semicolon. However, outside of the actual procedure
code, the terminator is the tilde (~). isql is
processing a single CREATE PROCEDURE command, but
within that one SQL statement, there are multiple embedded PSQL
statements:

oOutput = iInput;
suspend;

These have the semicolon terminator, as required by PSQL. The end of
the CREATE PROCEDURE command is indicated by the use of
the tilde as the terminator: